RHEL 9 must maintain an account lock until the locked account is released by an administrator.

Documentable No

Rule ID SV-258057r1045146_rule

CCI References

CCI-000044CCI-002238

Discussion

By limiting the number of failed logon attempts the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128, SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005

Check Procedure

Verify RHEL 9 is configured to lock an account until released by an administrator after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command:

$ sudo grep -w unlock_time /etc/security/faillock.conf

unlock_time = 0

If the "unlock_time" option is not set to "0" or the line is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Action

Configure RHEL 9 to lock an account until released by an administrator after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command:
 
$ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock  

Edit the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file as follows:

unlock_time = 0